Geneva escapes WW South’s wild fourth-quarter comeback
By the skin of its teeth, Geneva beat Wheaton Warrenville South 28-26 on Friday in Wheaton.
The host Tigers recovered two onside kicks and scored three touchdowns in the last 3 minutes, 1 second. Geneva’s Gavin Dworak intercepted a 2-point conversion pass attempt that allowed the Vikings (3-1, 2-0) to escape Red Grange Field with the DuKane Conference victory.
“Obviously that’s not the way we want to end it, but we end it with a win. I’d rather win ugly than lose looking good,“ said Geneva’s Illinois-bound receiver Bennett Konkey, who caught 12 passes for 169 yards and touchdowns of 13 and 11 yards.
“We ended with a win, that’s really all that matters,” said Konkey, who has scored 11 touchdowns in four games.
WW South (2-2, 1-1) looked dead in the water, trailing 28-7 and turning the ball over on an interception at 11:03 of the fourth quarter.
Instead, Sam Majors’ onside kicks recovered by Blake Ittersagen and Eric Hecker enabled Tigers quarterback A.J. Rogers to spark the rally. The 6-foot-2 junior finished with 37 completions on 52 attempts for 485 yards.
Following Rogers’ 3-yard touchdown pass to Steven Harvey across the middle to cut the Tigers’ deficit to 28-14, the comeback continued with Clark Jensen’s 1-yard touchdown run and Mason Bachara’s 3-yard touchdown catch in the back of the end zone.
“Obviously, we’re proud of the group for how they came back, how they continued to fight. We talk about, ‘Never give up,’ and ‘Refuse to lose.’ They showed a lot of that,” said WW South coach Sean Norris.
Ittersagen caught 9 passes for 118 yards with a 32-yard touchdown grab while tight end Jacob Bellows caught 8 passes for 106 yards.
However, the Tigers committed 11 penalties, one negating Anquan Thomas’ 68-yard second-quarter kickoff return.
Trailing 14-7 in the waning seconds of the second quarter, WW South had a chance to go into halftime tied. On Geneva’s 3-yard line, a botched center exchange out of a shotgun set allowed Vikings linebacker Jameson Barbat to sack Rogers.
Quarterback Ben Peterson’s great escape helped give the Vikings that lead.
Then tied 7-7, WW South forced a Geneva punt from its own 35-yard line. Also the Vikings’ punter, Peterson caught a high snap, tucked the football and ran 11 yards for a first down.
It paid off on Nelson Wendell’s 13-yard touchdown run behind left tackle Oliver Egan. Hudson Van Kleeck’s kick gave Geneva a 14-7 lead at 5:17 of the second quarter.
“Last year I did the same thing, I saw a lot of open field and took off and ran,” said Peterson, the Eastern Michigan commit who completed 21 of 30 passes for 247 yards.
“(Assistant) coach (Sean) Grady told me, if I saw the same look this week just to do it. Because he trusts me, and I trust my guys to make the blocks for me,” Peterson said.
Peterson threw for third-quarter touchdowns of 15 yards to Wendell — who ran for 78 yards — and 11 yards to Konkey for a 28-7 lead before WW South’s near-miracle finish.
“We just couldn’t piece together enough of those big plays in those big situations to come away with a victory today,” Norris said.